Transcripts For CSPAN LIVE Washington Journal 20171004

Republicans at 2027488001. Democrats at 2027488000. Independents at 2027488002. You can post on our twitter speed twitter feed at www. Cspan. Org. You may also comments on facebook. President trump will arrive in las vegas later this afternoon. He spoke with the Washington Times about the las vegas incident. In the article, gun rights was addressed. He was asked if the shooting at would promptncert him to consider guncontrol legislation. Tragedy, mr. Trump said at the white house. We will be talking about gun laws as times go by. When pressed by reporters, he said that that is not for now. It is for a later time. Asked whether he believed the gunman should have been allowed to own a highpowered arsenal, mr. Trump said we will talk about that at a later date. Again, the president will be heading to las vegas today. He got back from puerto rico yesterday. On his twitter feed, he said it was a great day in puerto rico yesterday. While some of the News Coverage is fake, most of it showed great warmth and friendship. This is part of his visit to puerto rico yesterday, talking with leaders and addressing concerns on the island. Pres. Trump i hate to tell you, but you have thrown our budget a little bit out of whack, because we have spent a lot of money on it for draco. On puerto rico and that is ok. If you look at a catastrophe tremendous ndy and the tremendous the hundreds and hundreds of people who died, nobody has ever seen anything like this. What is your death count as a this moment at this moment . 16 people. 16 people compared to the thousands. You can be very proud of the work your people have done. Everybody around this table and everybody watching can be very proud of what has taken place. The New York Times in their reporting of the trip yesterday highlighted the fact that it was shortly after the president left the island that the governor told a News Conference that the death count had risen to 34. Except for that sad adjustment, the trip marked a wellworn routine for a president on his fourth visit to a disaster zone in two months. He held a pet rally like briefing with officials in an aircraft hangar, a quick drive past twisted houses and uprooted trees, and a brief, from the encounter with victims of the storm. He spoke with a crowd outside of a chapel outside of sand one. He did that as part of his visit to puerto rico yesterday. He is set to visit las vegas today. He is set to travel in this next hour. Robert is next on the open phones on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you so much, cspan for the Wonderful Program that you run. First of all, my prayers and my heart goes out to the people of puerto rico. I have seen the devastation, and it is just so much. About cspan will talk what has happened in puerto rico over the last decade, especially over the last year. Bankruptcy is in which may be inflated little bit. Island is poverty. I do not want to dump on them percent, but this mayor of san se, butdump on them per the mayor of san juan has said that they have a higher poverty rate than any other metropolitan city in the United States. Country is over 74 billion in debt. That includes 9 billion in uncompensated pension. Host robert, thank you for your time. In our program yesterday, we do address some of the issues with puerto ricos debt with an interview with a florida representative. You can hear about what he has to say about the debt issues and what should be done. Robin on the independent line. Caller my opinion is that the culture of american of america is being attacked by the congress. I think it is the congress, the senate, and the house who needs to set an example that they need to do something about these Mass Shootings. Look at themselves, how they attack and fight each other. If they would change their attitude and the way they do this, it will reflect back into the country and the people. The people will be at peace and not wanting to go out and shoot people. Host the Washington Post in their editorial this morning highlighted the shootings that have taken place starting with the most recent one in las vegas and then going back to 1999. They highlighted places like the pulse nightclub in orlando. Theater in aurora, colorado. The names listed from all those shootings. Those that was in the editorial that the Washington Post put out today. Dave on the republican line. Caller i would just like to say human. Nald trump is only i have never seen a man with more energy in all my life. Believe the man is still going. He has had how many hurricanes . They are all disasters. Now, puerto rico is the last of the last. Puerto rico has to understand that the United States only has so much money. If we are short down in puerto , and i am amazed that we havent yet come up short, because of all the money we have spent in houston, florida, the carolinas, all the money we have invested in those disasters. Now we have puerto rico and the Virgin Islands, holy mackerel. I think he is doing magnificently. Host do you think it was appropriate for the president to mention order rico mentioned puerto ricos debt issues just after the crisis of the hurricane . Caller yes, i think so. He always says what enters his mind. He is just like that. I used to live in l. A. City when he was working on the hotels. Of guy who is mad for a couple of minutes, but then it is over. He gets irritated for a little himself then he gathers together and is a nice guy again. Morning haserg this a story on the topic of the rico. The president talking the topic of puerto rico. The article goes on to say that the debt would need to be wiped clean for the island to recover from the devastation of maria, but we are going to work something out. We are going to have to wipe that out. I do not know if it is Goldman Sachs or whoever it is, but wave goodbye to that. The caller later brought up the Virgin Islands. Later on in the program, a delegate from the Virgin Islands will join us to talk about the conditions of that island and its physical conditions after the hurricane. That conversation coming up at a 30. Thomas from ohio on the democrat line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I just want to say that the job is too big for the president. Host what leads you to that conclusion . Blame a u. S. O you citizen, how can you blame them for a hurricane . It does not make any sense. That thething, i think people should educate themselves on the 25th amendment of the. Onstitution this man has shown erratic behavior and mental instability. Theres something wrong with this man. Something is wrong with this country for electing him. From chesapeake, virginia on the independent line. The example of an unarmed population is north korea, venezuela. Supposing that guy had run for president , and we were an unarmed population. We would not have any defense. Meantght to bear arms is to stop a tyrant from taking over. I know people go crazy with their guns, that we have to figure out a different way to handle that rather than disarm the population. We need to stay armed. Host when you say we need to go about it a different way, specifically how . Caller we need to have wellregulated militia. Dangerous firearms need to be held by the militia under the Sheriff Department. The Sheriff Department should make the regulations. If you want to be armed like that, you can go in march with the militia. Our facebookgo to page, not only do we give you the opportunity to paste things you find interesting about the segments that we do, we also post videos like we did yesterday of the president s trip. That also has a link to the visit of President Trumps visit to the chapel in san juan. You can see that video on our Facebook Page. If you go to our website, www. Cspan. Org, you can find this video and more. Visitesident is set to las vegas today. Next, joann on the line. Go ahead. Caller thank you. I just watched his socalled interview when he went to puerto rico, and he made me sick. It makes me sick to know that he does not have empathy for anybody but himself. There is something wrong with the man. Host what about his trip led you to that conclusion . Caller watching him sitting around the table, and he condemns puerto rico for the and that they are putting our country at whack. It is crazy. The people are suffering down there, and he wants to talk about the billions of dollars in the budget. It is crazy. He also referenced the idea that possibly puerto ricos debt should be forgiven. Do you agree with that . Caller i think so. Next fromph up dallas, texas on the independent line. That, if itst think was not for colonialism, there would not be a puerto rico. He needs to talk about his golf courses he has bankrupt. Host what do you mean by colonialism in puerto ricos case . Caller from the time that america took it over, they have been trying to figure out every go has wealth. No one brought it to puerto rico. They come to build hotels, they tax the Puerto Ricans, how do you give them a minimum wage and then roll it back to 4. 50 . How can you have a minimum wage and then roll it back to take away money from people . I do not understand that. Host lets go to hawaii. John on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller thank you for cspan. I just want to say that Puerto Rico Needs to take on some responsibility for themselves. They know they are going to get hit by hurricanes. Hurricanes go through them all the time. There is a lesson to be learned here. They need to build quality structures. They need to store food and supplies. They need to have generators. They need to be prepared for when they do get hit every year. And they do get hit every year by hurricanes. There is a lesson to be learned here. That is the reason why President Trump made that comment. Talking about an island massively in debt with Economic Issues of its own, so is it fair to be expecting them to be that prepared given their Economic Situation . Caller isnt that what we are supposed to do . Isnt that what we are all supposed to do . Take on some responsibility for ourselves . They have these foods on tv that will allow last for 25 years and everything else. Isnt that what we are supposed to do . It is called survival . Host the previous caller, i told them that the president felt the debt should be wiped out. Do you agree with that . Caller i think we should, yes. We are a compassionate country. The president is a compassionate person. I think we should. On the other hand, we are not going to wipe out their debt and they are going to be sitting on their rears allday drinking rum and not taking responsibility for themselves. That goes for everybody in this country. Host that was john from hawaii. We have a headline on tim murphy. The representative popular with sent out ae Movement Text received a text message from a woman who took him to task about his antiabortion statement on facebook. You had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options. A forensic psychologist in pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship wrote to mr. Murphy on january 25 in the midst of an undoubted pregnancy scare. A text from him on that same day, he said that i get what you say about march for life message. I told the staff not to write anymore. The commerce men has been lauded for the by the Family Research council for his stance on abortion as well as family values. He is a member of the house prolife caucus which is in affiliation that is often cited by his office. You can find more on that story in the pittsburgh is that this morning. Arnold on the line from tennessee. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I just wanted to call in and say that love is the answer. Love is the only thing that is planet. Save this years ago, i saw a documentary where the man who made the documentary he went around the world and he interviewed the best and brightest minds on this planet. People like nobel laureates, people who have one pulitzer prizes, just the smartest people in the world. He started every interview with the same question, what is the single, one thing that humanity has to do to save itself from going extinct on this planet . If we do not make serious changes about the way we live, we will not be here within 100 years or so. That is mainly involving the environment. That everyonewers gave, the only one that i can remember was by a man named david suzuki. If you do not know who he is, you should google him to his answer was google him. His answer was very simple. His answer was love. Love is the only thing that is going to save the human race. It is the only thing that is going to turn this around. We have to realize that god is love. We have to turn back to loving each other. I have written a book that deals with this. It is free online. The website is godislove. Org. Host that was arnold from tennessee. On thatington post writing an article on gerrymandering. The Washington Post writing in article on gerrymandering. Gerrymandering inting that he seemed more sync with liberal colleagues who seemed convinced that a legislative map can be so infected with political bias that it violates the constitution. While he was previously expressing concerns about the political map making practice, he has yet to endorse a way of determining when gerrymandering is excessive. Attice kennedy gave no sign oral arguments tuesday that he had found one. In a case from wisconsin that could reach it way american elections are conducted, the Supreme Court heard from challengers that it was the only institution in the United States at could prevent a coming wave of extreme partisan gerrymandering that could distort the basic structure of democracy. Justices,rvative skeptical of smiths arguments, seemed to agree that it was unsavory for members of the party in power to draw a legislative districts to protect themselves and their own. Would make it hard for opponents to every gain power. Gerrymandering is distasteful. Yesterday, jeffrey minor, and counsel to john roberts, had requested legislators to have audio arguments live streamed. He told the house members that the arguments would be live streamed. This was in order for the chief justice to help increase public understanding. Are familiarou with it justices concerns surrounding the live broadcast or streaming of oral arguments. By the way, the Court Releases audiotaped of the arguments. Of theases audio tape arguments. We will have those tapes after this fridays case on gerrymandering. You can find that case on www. Cspan. Org on friday. Pamela in maryland on the democrats line. Hello there. Caller hello, pedro. That justr callers spoke was a little prejudicial and what he said about Puerto Ricans sitting on their rumps drinking rum. I just want to say that first of all. Another caller spoke and said that donald trump basically speaks offthecuff, which we know, and that he gets mad sometimes. Well, he is the president. It is not about him. It is about puerto rico. Comments,o table his what he thinks, or how he feels, and he needs to look at what is good for the country, what is good for puerto rico, and what is good for the u. S. In general and the world as well. He needs to stop thinking about how it relates to him. Host keit in woodbridge, virginiah on the independent line. Caller good morning. This t going to say it appears from my standpoint that the president of the United States is filling failing the American People. Yesterdays visit was nothing more than for show. I do not expect him to do anything to change the current gun control legislation or to do anything to affect the Second Amendment. The another the second thing is that i would like to address the gentleman who said that we need a rail a well regulated militia. What he needs to realize is that the constitution already provides for that, and there is already a standing militia which is the National Guard which belongs to each state. Recognizednated and by the country as the wellregulated militia in structure and mission. That is all i have to say. Host john on the republican line in virginia. Though ahead. Caller go ahead. Caller yes, i bought 70,000 in about puerto rican bonds years ago. The broker told me that they were triple taxfree and that they were yielding at 5 or 6 . He also had insurance. When the economy went bad down there. When the economy went bad down there, and they were not able to make their payments on the bonds which were used to do infrastructure work and everything like that, they were not able to pay back the bonds. I sold them before hand so that i could get my money out of there, but people need to know that they took a great risk by giving a higher than normal Interest Rate to get all that money down there. It is not Goldman Sachs. It is the individuals who hold those bonds. They are the ones dealing with debt or things like that. I think this is an opportunity to look at what they did with that money. Now that they are having all of these problems, how they got is important. They got it off those higher Interest Rates. Host you bought the bonds, you are making some returns on them, and then you decided they were going to stop paying them . Caller there was very good returns. They were triple tax free. They were at about 7 or 8 which is way above normal. That is a decision that the puerto rican government made. Host when you hear the president raised the idea of clearing the data way, ultimately, what clearing the debt away, ultimately, what goes through your mind . Caller ultimately, i am glad i got out, because i had insurance and i could get out. I got my money out of there. It is a very complicated situation down there. In billions of dollars on these puerto rican bonds, and i do not know what they did with the money. York mark in new city, new on the independent line. Caller good morning. Hello, pedro. They do for cspan. My comment today is about gun control given this recent, horrible mass murder in las vegas. I have been watching the reports on it, and they cannot even find a history of Mental Illness with the murderer. , we have ridiculous gun laws in this country, and we need to make sure that people cannot stockpile guns. The stateyork of new york, new jersey, and california are the only ones with halfway decent gun control laws. The rest of the country has insane and control laws. You should have to pass a background check, we at least a month to buy a gun, background check, wait at least a month to buy a gun, and there should be limits on the guns you can buy. There is no weight you need to buy no reason why you need to buy an automatic gun unless it is to kill people. We do know why we cannot pass them, because politicians are in the pocket of the nra. Host when you talk about this idea of passing all these things, have you do that without infringing on the Second Amendment . Caller i am not so interested about the rights of people to have guns. I am more concerned about my rights to walk the streets safely as a taxpaying citizen and not get killed on the street by a crazy person. Interested in unlimited rights to guns. Read the Second Amendment many times. Militia, i have a military and a police who protect me. I do not understand why civilians need to have all these weapons. It does not make any sense. Dianne feinstein of california putting out a tweet this morning saying that automatic weapons are illegal, but individuals are still able to buy stocks which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire at inflict heavy amounts of carnage. Host one more call on these open phones. Stephen from New Hampshire on the independent line. Caller i have a quick question about the debt. Does notin puerto rico just go away because it is from the state. Every state is required to keep track of its own debt. Ask new york city how many times they have gotten wiped out. Two, that special tax in ,uerto rico not paying taxes they lose all that. Every bit of that. The people there will have to stop paying income tax and everything else. Most of all, number three, you cannot fly that flagged anymore. You have to fly the American Flag. Host that was stephen from New Hampshire. That was the last call on these open phones. Ceo ofom the former equifax who spoke about the data breach and the information released from that. That is part of the conversation coming up with our next debt next guest, represented Leonard Lance representative Leonard Lance. He was one of the lawmakers who did the questioning. He will talk with us about that questioning. Later, we will talk about the debt of the island of puerto rico and we will talk about the state of the u. S. Virgin islands. If you are interested in seeing the hearing which took place on capitol hill which featured Richard Smith of equifax, you can go to our website, to view it in its entirety. Here is a highlight. Congressman, there is a process that is a little different as far as the consumer. The protection that he would she that he or she would get doing one versus the other is virtually if not exactly the same. Exactly is notd the same. So, your product is the same . As far as the protections we will get into that either. I appreciate the clarification. Pay consumers who have lost money during the freeze in which their data was stolen . Right now, we offer a free lock product for one year and a free lifetime love product lifetime lock product. Equifax be willing to pay for that freeze for that block for experienced in trans union for users who information whose information was stolen from equifax . Encourage, to be clear, i would encourage trans union, experian and others to do the same. Give power back to the consumer to control who accesses his or her credit data. Knowwill take that as a that equifax will not pay for experienced and Trans Union Experian and trans union users. This very seriously. I have apologized, and i will apologize again to the american consumer. We are offering a comprehensive set of products for free. Will those products make consumers whole . It will protect them Going Forward. Will it make them whole . Tell if hard for me to someone has been harmed. I cannot answer the question. If someone opened up an ofount and bought a lot furniture, tools, that consumer whose data was stolen has been harmed. Will equifax make them whole . Comes in, i have apologized congressman, i have apologized ok, thank you very much. Host you can find that full hearing online at www. Cspan. Org. That testimony and hearing about the data breach at equifax. One of the people at the hearing who got to speak with Richard Smith was Leonard Lance. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host how satisfied where you the answers he gave how satisfied were you with the answers he gave . Guest not very. The breach occurred in july, and the public was not informed until september which is wrinkly unacceptable. Yost which is frankl unacceptable. Whatat does the role is the role that Congress Plays in these situations . Guest we have oversight to protect the American People. This may require legislation, but we are really only just at the beginning of the process. I asked mr. Smith whether or not there was a foreign actor involved, and he refused to answer the question. I believe i asked the question to or three time question two or three times, and he would not answer. Host why go down that line of questions . Know who dided to this. I thought he might provide an answer, and he did not. Host you say possibly legislation will have to be considered in situations like this. What kind of things would you like to see legislatively . Aest for instance, if company is aware of this, the public should be made aware immediately. Here was certainly a delay there was a delay to the board of directors of the company. If the American People look at that time frame, and the timeframe is not a very pretty sight. Host because of the time it occurred, and a time when the thed of directors and time when the board of directors and American People were informed guest . Were informed. Guest yes, the data breach occurred in july, and the public was not informed until september. Host republicans can call in on 2027488001. Democrats on 2027488000. Ndependents on 2027488002 you can also send us questions on twitter at http twitter. Com cspanwj. Whichwas a piece suggested another way of taking a look at credit agencies. She said that we could follow andr countrys examples hand over our data to a public registry instead of a private profiteer. Only about 40 of registries include consumer addresses and two thirds collect taxpayer id s. What do you think of that prospect . Guest i think we should explore all options. This is a forprofit company, and my interest is in protecting the American People and not invading their polyp their privacy. I think we should explore all options. Host as far as credit itoring as a packet package of protection, you think it goes far enough . Guest i think they were slow in their regard to alert the public. It took the public a good deal of time to get through. S is not a pretty state pretty sight. Host is there a role for the federal trade commission to look at this when it comes to data breaches . The committee which i serve is the energy and Commerce Committee which is the oldest committee in the house of representatives, and we do deal with the congress of the United States, and we tried to work with there is federal agencies including the federal trade commission. Ive stuck with the fact that it seems to me Business Executives have a responsibility greater , especiallyompanies if they interact with the entire American People. Indeed, hundreds of millions of americans were affected by this. Host we will start this morning with bruce in indianapolis on the independents line. Go ahead. Caller i have a question for you representative. Irs, theyack at the stole a bunch of money from me somebody did. I do not know who, and i am sure you do not know who either. You are responsible for the irs, and i would like to know what is going on with that. They have not even bother to tell me that i got hacked which i did. To really have a lot of gall be screaming at equifax, yahoo , and everyone else about hacks when you are in charge of the irs. Why have you not done anything . Guest thank you for your question, and i hope that the irs did not take any of the proceeds which are rightfully yours. Case, i want the irs to be as transparent as possible. In thised an irs country, but we need one that is entirely about board. There is no partisan position in the irs. I want to make sure that no american is ever disadvantaged by the irs, because that is not appropriate and completely intolerable. Anne and from virginia from virginia on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller why do these companies not automatically put a freeze on everyones accounts who were affected . They could automatically put a freeze on my account and then notify me that there was a problem and then give me the codes to get into my account. Guest that is an excellent question, and i think that is a direction we could explore. The burden should not be on the people of this country. It should be on the company. I think that is an excellent suggestion. Host andrew is up next from florida. Florida, we have a lot of companies which require to provide a freeze. When the office of National Management was hacked, i had applications for clearance in which was pushed darko the dark wet or web or etc. I had to put a freeze on all my credit lines. We found that there are a lot of credit Union Companies out there. Is equifax want to be allowed to remove the capability to freeze your Credit Report . I believe it is state law that it. Are required to provide thewould that impact all of state laws with this new federal allowance or program . Will it trump the state laws in some way . No pun intended there. Usually, in these matters, we work cooperatively with the states and with state law. Before we write new legislation, there is always discussion in the committee if we are going to preempt existing state law. It is my position that we should probably not do that, particularly if the states have better protection that is currently available at the federal level. I do not believe that all wisdom is in washington. I think state capitals have an Important Role to play in this regard. Host one of the issues that came up was the updating of software to prevent these breaches from happening. Is there a sense of more oversight needed from the federal government to make sure that these regular Software Updates are done . That was one of several lines of questioning yesterday. Colleagues on the subcommittee pursued that. Host what is the best approach on that front . Guest the best approach is to require companies to update their software and to do so in a timely fashion. So much of this situation was not done in a timely fashion. Host New Hampshire on the democratic line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Tv, itime i turn on my feel like i am hearing about a data breach. About is thecerned fact that there really has been no information provided to consumers. I have contacted my attorney generals office, and i feel like they have more information than they are giving me. The website provided by equifax would take you to the wrong place, the wrong link was given out. Can you give some information on what consumers can do regarding the equifax reach to see if they are compromised . O, the freezing process although they took away the fee, it is certainly a hassle for consumers to have to track and follow, because i am not tech savy at all. Think morey oversight needs to be done by the federal government. Whoan see that with the with yahoos data breach. Host carla, thank you. Guest thank you for your question. I agree with you are point that the burden should not be on the consumer. It should be with the company. The company told us yesterday that it is doing a better job than originally. I do not know if that is accurate or not. We have put on our website how to be helpful. Certainly, i know it is true of members of congress from new england and New Hampshire. I cannot agree with you more that this is really a burden that should be borne by the company and not the American People who were affected by this. Host talking about another topic, the proposal from republicans on tax reform. One of the issues that has, would be with state and local taxes. What is being proposed, and what do you think of the proposal . Guest the general outline is to estate deductibility of taxes, and i am completely opposed to that. I live in new jersey which is a high tax state. I do not believe you should pay taxes on taxes. We have the highest property taxes in the nation in new jersey. Result, we have suffering public schools. I believe we should continue to have this deductibility which has been in the tax code since 1913. I am working as hard as i can on this issue. Certainly, our leadership in the house of representatives,peaker ryan and chairman brady they all know my views on this as does the administration. Host there are stories this morning suggesting that leadership may be willing to walk away from that proposal. Have you heard anything to that effect . Guest i have heard rumors to that effect. I hope the leadership runs quickly away from that proposal. This was on the table the last time we had major tax reform in 1985 and 1986. It was effectively taken off of the table. It would not just affect new jersey. It would affect new york, illinois, massachusetts, and quite a few other states as well. Host what happens to the tax proposal if it is eliminated . What would it take to balance it out to make sure that more deficit is not gained . Guest that is in excellent proposal. Perhaps the proposal will have to be scaled back. There could be a modest amount of dynamic scoring, but i think it has to be realistic. I do not think it can be out of the ballpark. This all has to be priced in the context of what should or should not be remitted regarding permitted not be regarding deduction. Morningstory this saying that state and local taxes, conservative lawmakers saying that it tends to benefit wealthy taxpayers who itemize deductions on their tax reform. Guest if we are going to have a discussion about subsidies, and we need to have a discussion about all subsidies. New jersey is a sending state and not a receiving state. We really are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of what we get back. My views on this are based upon looking at the entire situation. Some of the states which are critical of my position on this issue, they are states which benefit enormously from federal programs. If we are going to scrap subsidies, then it has to be across the board. Host our guest represents the seventh district of new jersey. Kent is from princeton, new jersey on a democrat line. Go ahead. Caller good morning, pedro and representative lets. I came in and representative lance. I came in when we were talking about the credit issues on equifax. I am curious about this particular tax question. I have my thoughts composed on the prior question, and they are not off the cuff. What should i do . Host go ahead with your equifax question. Caller representative, i wonder first if you are aware that the people could take advantage of the free protections that equifax is offering . Something could really go haywire for them in this case of the breach. Like so many corporations, they would have to agree in advance to arbitration where equifax gets to choose the arbitrating company and location which could be very inconvenient for people. Also, i have a freeze with all three companies. None of them told me that there was a cost involved in applying the freeze. They just put the freeze on. Host guest thank you for the question. That is excellent information. I think equifax should be more forthcoming in this area. I thank you for the information you have provided. This will continue to be discussed and analyzed as we move forward. We have not yet written legislation, but you bring up some valid points. It is always good to speak with someone from princeton which is right outside the district i serve. It is very nice to speak with you from instant. Our next caller from orlando. Go ahead. Caller yes, sir. I was on the equifax thing before you all changed it. I wanted to say that equifax has done a horrible thing, and they ought to be punished for it. ,t is a little bit hypocritical because we have the obama where no one had their lawsuits taking care of our anything. I think arbitration should be legal. It does nothing but to hurt should be illegal. It does nothing but to hurt the small man. Be new there ought to laws. If things happen while they are in leadership roles, they ought to be punished just like someone who doesnt under their offices. Whichas a horrible thing killed a lot of confidence in our nation. Guest thank you for your comments. I do not think the irs should ever be weaponize. Republicans, democrats, or anybody. I believe in a completely nonpartisan irs. I recognize there might be an attempt emotionally to do what may have been done on the other side. That is not my view on public policy. I think we should have in irs completely above board and nonpartisan. Certainly, i am working to that end. I thought what happened with the Obama Administration targeting conservative groups was completely acceptable. I do not think we should go in the other direction. I think they should be completely nonpartisan. Host roxanne from st. Paul, minnesota on the republican line. Caller i am trying to close on a house right now, and i have been hacked three times for 5,000 in the last month. Role have you taken as far as trying to address those concerns . Have you contacted your bank or other agencies . Yes, and may have contacted me back. Guest i hope that you pursue this. You might want to pursue it locally with a governmental entity in your state. I do not know if this involves the equifax situation or not, but you should certainly go online if you are one of the millions of americans affected. Host there are conversations on capitol hill about gun control after what happened in las vegas. Farcedoes this stand as as far as the possibility of legislation . Legislationnk the will not, and i did have problems with that will not come up, and i did have problems with that legislation. I think we should have appropriate federal funding on background checks. Mental health is a component of this. Democratonsor with a from california on a Mental Health act which we are trying to expand. We are working in our committee on this issue on the health aspect of this. Concernst is your about the legislation on silencers and concealed carry . Was on theoncern silencers, for example. I do not think Senate Automatic weapons should ever the be allowed to become automatic weapons. Automatic i do not think that some automatic weapons should ever be allowed to become automatic weapons. I do not think that semia evertic weapons should be allowed to become automatic weapons. Automatic weapons had been banned in this country for many years. Host lets go to paul in new jersey. Caller good morning, representative. Living in new jersey and your district, we have the highest sales tax and real estate taxes. I am 57 years old, and i him on Social Security retirement pension. I am looking to move to florida where the environment for seniors is a lot easier. Have you ever been a has not loved who every tax introduced . Guest thank you. It is an honor to represent hillsboro in congress. I agree that taxes are too high in new jersey. We will have a governors race in five weeks, and this is one of the principal issues in the governor race. That, that is why i think it is essential that we continue to have the ability to deduct state and local taxes on the federal form, because the state and local taxes are so high in new jersey. I was in opponent of borrowing without voter approval. Unfortunately, my views did i certainly can understand your concern and i want to make sure new jersey is a place where everyone can live. That is why i think that it is important to continue. Independent line. Caller i just wanted to say accountabilityf is unacceptable. Should common sense prevail when it comes to Consumer Protections. It is not a partisan issue. That. I agree with i think that is one of the best statements i have heard on this whole matter. It is not a partisan issue. The subcommittee was complete bipartisanletely yesterday. I hope you have a opportunity to review the hearing. We were completely united that we have to move forward in society together on this issue. It is appalling it affected hundred 45 million americans. Host fashion be on the website available for you to watch. What is the followup . What happens next . Guest i would like to hear from the current ceo. I dont know whether we are going to do that. We will examine whether or not we should move forward with legislation. Ofs was the first iteration what we are doing but i think it would be fair to say that members of the committee were not satisfied with answers we received. Is there an appetite to move forward legislation . Guest the chairman of the subcommittee of ohio, and greg walden of oregon. The Ranking Member is frank pallone. I hope we can Work Together on this issue. Host massachusetts, kathy in charlestown. Understand why equifax is allowed to hold that decision of monitoring our data. Who grantedw that. They no longer play that role. They are not up to the task. Gueststion is for your mother is so much talk about Consumer Protections in what we should do. I would like to ask what his the committee has accomplished in the last two years. Point to something tangible that has actually been enacted that serves the benefit of a consumer. What have you done on your committee in the last two years . Thank you. Guest our committee is the most bipartisan in congress. Either in the house or the senate. More legislation reaches the floor of the house, more is signed into law by president obama and now we hope with President Trump as well. To give you a specific example we passed major legislation regarding moving forward in and makinghe fda sure we have appropriate funding for the nih. We are in authorizing committee. This bill came out of our , every member voted for it. T is major legislation consumers of health care. I dont think he got the coverage it should have. Contentious. So often in washington what is reported is backandforth, political interactions. I am proud to serve on the committee and want to assure you that we work in a bipartisan way on so many issues and certainly we will on equifax. Guest is the vice chairman the communications and technology committee. Your thoughts before you leave my there are stories about facebook ads that were purchased to influence the election. What do you think is the future as far as social media ads . Is there a federal role seeing what happens next with this . Role. There is a federal we have to get to the bottom of whether a foreign nation that was involved in the election last year, clearly russia was involved. Perhaps oning facebook. This will require the cooperation of facebook and other companies. I want to make sure we get to the bottom of that. The potential of leaders appearing before your committee . Guest i deferred to the chairman and Ranking Member but i would favor that. Host thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Host open phones for the next 25 minutes. Here is how you can comment. Well be right back. This weekend, saturday at 8 00 eastern on lectures in laura watt discusses the evolution of the National Park system. This was not just setting aside a natural landscape and leaving it alone which is what we tend to think of. What he was doing was making nature out of what was mostly old sheep meadows. Area is a big grassy called the sheep meadow. Sunday, saving slate houses. Documentation is a type of preservation. They are buildings that are disappearing from the landscape. By documenting them that is one way of preserving them. Share information and get it out there to learn from them. Then we continue our series on photo journalists. A woman named sandy, who ended up on the front page of the post, yelling at these freshmen who were lined up theirt the wall with chins tucked in. That photo array everywhere in the world. Im convinced that story helped me get my job at the post. Washington journal continues. Host the tech savvy of the onience can reach out twitter. You can post on our Facebook Page. On the phones, to show you some headlines, from sundays event, this is the Las Vegas Sun with pictures of victims shot during the event. President trump traveling there today to speak with First Responders and others. He is expected to arrive shortly. ,he Las Vegas Review journal baller and vegas, with police as it arrives downtown, this is of the Las Vegas Review journal. The conversation on the Las Vegas Shooting took place on capitol hill. , talking about what it means for congress. We have a lot of people in the hospital fighting for their lives. Parents grieving for their children. We cant let the actions of a Single Person define us as a country. What defines us are the acts of heroism we witnessed after the tragedy. There are hundreds of stories of people looking up looking out for one another. You saw pictures of people lining up to give blood. This is what america is. This is going to take time but we are all in this together as a country. It is evidence of the power of miracles and prayer, of us getting back together. Our fellow citizens need both these things. To heal, to grieve, to pray, to come together. Host we will start this morning with maria from new jersey. Caller good morning. Pointsfour quit quick to make. There is a website immigration counters. Com which i would prefer everybody to. They have 27 million and they have all the cost and figures. On froman have somebody them, i think we have to get a handle on how many we are talking about. Dailyerage wage in mexico is four dollars . 35. Illegal farmworkers in america 1012,000 a year which puts them in the top 2 of earners in mexico. It isnt humble people. They are making their families rich and we are getting nothing from it. Views. Com, it explains treason about sanctuary cities. And what can we do about it . Arrest make a citizens for the politicians lying about this. I think it is going to be the people who rescue this country. Please have them on to other people. Host the wall street journal writes about the effort by some of public and legislators when it comes to dreamers, those who came from other countries here as children, they gain support with caveats, saying the chairman suggested provisions such as requiring all employers use everify to check whether employees have authorization to deportking it easier to people. President Trumps Administration officials cited with democrats saying it was a bad idea to give people legal status without the ability to become citizens contradicting republicans saying that is middle ground. The president ended the program known as daca under a sixmonth phase out. 690,000 program will begin away. Their protection those with twoyear permits expire before march 5 or allowed to renew one more time set for thursday. I just want to say the president of the nra said to stop a bad person with a gun we need a good person with a gun. There is no such thing. How many massacres, how many people have died . A lot of American People. [inaudible] how many people died . How many people wounded . Host leo and lafayette, louisiana. Caller i want to talk about what speaker ryan admitted at the top. , what is america . America is this and that. Let me tell you what america is not. America is not what donald trump did yesterday in puerto rico, ignoring their mayor. Americans should find it appalling, disgusting and disrespectful. That is what america is not. That is why you have so much division. You have a president like that, people that side with him when he is so asinine, demoralizing and arrogant. That is what america is not. If you keep him the president this country will stay divided. Host maggie is next. Democrats line. Caller i have a question about Gun Legislation and gun control. Republicans,the saying it is too early to talk thet any kind of change in gun control laws. It is not now if not now, when . When is there a good time . And gun shows,es there are no background checks required. In private gun sales or gun shows. That should absolutely be changed. That is all i have. Thank you. Host abc news reporting it was in the residence trip yesterday he had time with the san juan mayor, who told President Trump Hurricane Relief efforts were not about politics, days after President Trump sparred with her via twitter over the federal governments response, adding she says it is about saving lives, not about politics. They shook hands. Accused her of having to beats telling her nasty to him. President trump will head to las vegas to speak with First Responders as part of a trip you will make today. Jack in ohio, independent line. Caller how are you doing . I have a hard time feeling sorry for republicans that got shot in las vegas. They brought it on themselves. Host how do you know they were republicans . Caller im sure some of them were. They brought it on themselves. Host how did they bring it on themselves . Caller they voted for representatives in approved 100 andd clips, machine guns they have no gun control. They brought it on themselves. Host lets go next to betty. About i want to talk trump yesterday in puerto rico. That was a disgrace. The way he talked about the budget. What about the men stealing the money prior . He is spending enough of the taxpayers money. Wife hader thing, his to nudge him and tell him to his hand over his heart when they were playing the national anthem. Hes the president , he should lead by example. These host Football Players will leave them alone. Host leave these Football Players alone. Host the trumpet administration is exploring ways to replace the Social Security number with a safer system based on modern technology in the wake of the equifax hack. There is a possibility in using a combination of long random numbers to unlock personal data. He says i feel strongly about the Social Security number has outlived its usefulness. It is a flawed system. Every time we use the number we put it at risk. That is in the wall street journal. We talked about equifax with their previous guest. Theyre looking at yahoo , more information released that an additional 2 billion victims the to light which brought which bought the company in june. The company obtained new intelligence and believes following an investigation all yahoo users were affected by the august 2013 theft. That was in a statement posted by the website tuesday. Mandy is in tampa. Caller i have always been an independent but the state of florida no longer has the ability to keep that status in place. I am now a democrat. I want to know why such a massacre happened at a concert. We have had all these gun shootings. Happened at that baseball field with all those representatives. Would they have change the law . And firstpresident lady are getting off the helicopter marine one as they prepare for their flight to las vegas. The president is heading to air force one to take that flight. We will continue with calls. Sandra in maryland. Republican line. Caller i just wanted to dispel that myth that the woman from georgia who called and said that people did not go through background checks when they buy guns at gun shows. That is incorrect. , i have but a few firearms. I present my id and weight to get cleared through background checks before i can purchase my firearm. I just wanted to dispel that myth. Host what type of information specifically do you have to offer at a gun show . Caller you have to present your drivers license and at least if virginia,gun shows in you have to present another form of id that has your current address on it. I use my Voter Registration card. Ands your name, address make sure that you are the ,erson that are buying the gun that you are not buying it for someone else. Is pretty much a one page or two page form. You give it to the vendor and they have a database they put your information in to make sure there havent been any felony arrests or convictions or Police Actions that would preclude you from buying a firearm. Host do all the vendors have access, are they required to have access . Caller yes. You cannot buy a gun without going through that process. There are lots of police officers. Usually they are in convention centers. When you walk into that building after you pay your fee entry, there are lots of policeman, Milling Around inside the place where the vendors are have their terrible set up. There is a Law Enforcement presence and if by chance there is a problem and someone is trying to buy a gun that does not authorized to have one the police are engaged. We have seen that. Host you think there is an argument to be had about the bomb stocks you have seen on the news, these other addons that increase firepower . Ofler im a big advocate this Second Amendment. Im a retired navy disabled veteran. I can see both sides of the argument. Cant it is a sportsmans article that people like to shoot in the woods, and various other facilities. If they want to do that, i dont think they should have a restriction, as long as there are not they have been checked out, you can buy it. I think a background check for would not be out of line. Host we will hear next from philip. Im worried some of your callers are delusional. I did checking on gun control stats yesterday. They pointed out within the last two years there have been 400 incidents of Mass Shootings defined as for people being shot at one time. At that larged number. There are 310 million guns of the country. You had callers saying the answer is more guns. With that many guns in the country, something is not working. I would like to point out to your listeners, look at a country with gun control, england, france, canada, their shooting rate is tiny compared hours. Falls, actual gun control or you cant get a gun throughout the country works. Look at the facts. I dont understand why they are not looking at that. Host from connecticut, we would hear from ron. Caller how are you . Im a member of the National Rifle association. I think something has to be done with weapons at can be that can be modified like that. When you can put a bum stock on a weapon and turn it into a fully automatic machine gun, there is no excuse. It would be the equivalent of the gangsters in the 1920s that used to ride on the side of cars with tommy guns. Nobody hunted in those days with a submachine gun. I dont know anywhere where you can hunt with a weapon like that. You have to have a shotgun that holds no more than three rounds. A duck has more protection than human beings . I dont understand the ability a fullyrt a gun into automatic weapon. I dont understand why they can massacre all these people like that. If it was criminal shooting at each other, criminals are criminals. You have innocent people being mowed down by weapon converted in 20 machine gun. Something has got to be done. Host you think that something would be some thing that does not infringe on the Second Amendment itself . Caller why do you need a weapon like that . You can adequately defend your home with far less than a fully automatic machine gun. You can get a pistol permit. You dont need to carry a warfare weapon like that to protect yourself. Salesmanhat gun store that said people hunt with an ar15 with a bum stock. I dont know anywhere where you can hunt with Something Like that, mowed down a herd of bison . Whered you hunt with that . You have shotguns for duck hunting. Mean a duck has more protection than people have . To gary, indiana. Democrats line. Caller good morning to you. I will start off by saying there are two things that we have in common we are staunch democrats and diehard football fans. Athink it is a disgrace that lot of these football fans who have hangups, there have always been problems, that is to be considered, but lets not respond by disrespecting not it, lets takes away from the concepts. Sacred commodity we are dealing with here. Our forefathers sacrificed a lot preserve our heritage and freedom. Put aese people to just onck on i black eye ist or the nfl, i think that ludicrous and preposterous. Lets find another way to present our frustration. If theres problems, lets try totake more rational means correct those things. Host so was this a concern for the length of time this has been going on, or was it more recently from the actions of nfl players . To say itll, i wanted has always been a problem but it is more of a concern now because it is more of a concern for everybody. Here in recentd times. People would come up with ideas on how people should handle themselves in regard to these issues. That is all i have to say to that. Good day to you. Host last call. The president talking about puerto rico. Our next guest focusing on the state of the Virgin Islands. Later, the Mass Shootings in las , we will talk about the politics and the policy of that discussion. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. Cspan was created as a Public Service by americas cable companies. It is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. It became clear, my impression of breitbart as having an outside influence on the 2016 election was an understatement in in the extreme. Breitbart was the driving force on the right side of the political spectrum. Night, will hilton talks about his feature story, down the breitbart whole. Hole. , thisets to the disparity hysterical machine for creating a fence. Reality of the News Organization as it focuses on a daytoday basis. Sunday night. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now, Stacy Plaskett of the Virgin Islands to talk about hurricane recovery efforts. Did morning to you. Guest good morning. Host is the Virgin Islands getting enough attention . Guest that has been the concern. Americans are not hearing about what happened in the Virgin Islands with Hurricane Irma and hurricane katrina. We are the only place in the United States that were hit by two category 5 hurricanes. We have had both of them as a category 5. It has decimated. Viewers idea of what supplies are my is available to the people. Guest i have been home quite a bit on all three islands. They are major islands. Talking with people, going out, visiting in shelters, going through neighborhoods. Talking with local officials. What i found interesting is, there are a lot of supplies, there are a lot of personnel, but it seems slow moving in terms of getting to places that need it the most. Same as puerto rico. You see the containers sitting in the ports, distribution things piled up. A mile away people who have not had water in a week. Host the puerto rico situation was having the Truck Drivers to be able to drive out to these locations. Is it the same situation . Situation. Same our governor has set up distribution centers. Yesterdayll with fema. They are just now getting personnel on the ground to go into neighborhoods. 9. A struck september that is a long wait. Open forne lines are you if you want ask our guest questions. Has the president met with the governor to talk with the situation . Guest i know they have had conversations on the phone. Yesterday when the president went to puerto rico, my understanding is the governor went to puerto rico to meet with him for a meeting at that time. Host have your it anything as far as the nature of those discussions . Guest the governor has not share that with me. I will be going down with the vice president. Is there any indication as to why he has not visited yet . Guest i have not gotten an indication about that. He was concerned about the availability. The planes landing might be difficult. On c17s coming down to the islands between the island after the hurricanes. If you want to give us your perspective on this situation, dollar figure wise what does it look like . Guest they are still doing assessments. A week ago Elijah Cummings and i sent a letter to trey gowdy. Elijah cummings is the Ranking Member. Asking for an emergency hearing about what was happening with puerto rico. Is the federal government responding correctly . Femad a briefing with officials. Eight members were there and asked a number of questions. Some of those questions are related to this relief effort, what is taking so long for things on the ground . Is inour first call washington, maryland. You are on with our guest. Caller how are you doing . Guest good morning. Caller good morning. A lot of people dont want to speak on it, but i think a lot vi is itw why the getting coverage. It is a predominately black island. Puerto rico, it can go either way. Puerto rico is one of the most racist islands i have been to. When it comes down to black americans in st. Thomas, st. John, sink roy, they get no coverage. I believe it is because it is a black island. Guest that is an interesting point. I have heard people say that. I have seen the federal government has been on the ground in terms of prepositioning, providing support. I think there is a disconnect between information they are receiving and what our local ,overnment is expecting of them pushing them for more than what they are given. Uss comfortthat the is going to puerto rico because they have lost quite a number of hospitals. In the Virgin Islands we have lost both of our hospitals and we are operating out of tents. Why hasnt there been a push by our governor to insist a military medical vessel come on our shores . He has not asked me for Additional Support in pushing for that. I know there is a vessel on its way to uganda rather than the u. S. Virgin islands to support american citizens. I have been trying to believe the reason the media has not picked up the Virgin Islands is because puerto rico is such a. Arge island, 3 Million People i also remember that the Virgin Islands were struck by irma two weeks before puerto rico was struck by maria. We did not get the coverage at that time either. Reluctantly, i think you may have something, but i am hopeful that we, the media is not operating in that way. The federal government is there and they are doing their job. What happens in the media is dictated by callers like yourself, Virgin Islands living in the states to insist the media pick up coverage and take up the charge of the people of the Virgin Islands. Host bob is next. Caller hello. Good morning. Rational ork it is makes sense to restore these islands back to where they were. I think we should evacuate the islands and turn them into farms. Theres way too many people to even fix the country. What do you think of that . Guest you know, the Virgin Island are, the majority were brought there not of their own volition. From puerto rico and the Virgin Islands. Most were brought as slaves. We have made those islands our home. My family has been there for 300 years. I would dare anybody to tell me that is not my home and i should leave. You dont tell people in florida we should pick up from florida and evacuate florida because there are hurricanes, or leave kansas because there are tornadoes. We make ourselves resilient. We deal with Mother Nature and the things she brings. We support americans were ever the American Flag is. Host bill in mississippi. Caller my question is, since it is a u. S. Territory, the Virgin Islands and puerto rico, my main concern is why the power grid was never taking care of years with power lines underground, so that when things like this happen, hopefully the power can remain on or at least be fixed sooner without existing telephone poles across the island. Effort was relief isre, but the infrastructure so bad to get to people they finally decided to helicopter some relief efforts and drop them to areas, which i thought they should have done. Mmediately instead of waiting my heart and prayers do go out to everyone there. I hope a quick fix can be taking care of. Guest thank you for those points. First, the relief efforts. I think that we should have thought through this. We know where the areas are at that its going to be difficult for people to get to even if we dont know where the hurricane is going to impact exactly. You are correct, it probably was in foresight. One of the reasons we were for a hearing is to make sure we doing best practices Going Forward the next time this happens. There are bound to be additional hurricanes. The poweralk about grid i cant agree with you more. Why are we still having poll in the Virgin Islands, in puerto rico . One of the reasons, our towns are underground, but not the rest of the island. I talked with the head of our power authority. Is 6gure he gave me billion. In the long run that would be a lot cheaper than what we are doing now having to every time there is a hurricane read this but the cost of doing that is not something the territories are able to pick up. The territories operate differently than the state and do not get the same amount of federal funding the states get. Even inre to get that terms of infrastructure, that might be something we could undertake as a state. It would be a smart move on our part. Host there was an oped from a islands, in the virgin he highlights the debt of the islands. The argument he makes is they should get federal assistance but it is doubtful the government can responsibly administer the money transferred. Guest i dont know why he thinks that. We have in the past never received the same amount as the states. Who knows if they receive equal treatment as the states if they would be able to administer it properly. My office is working on legislation that talks about not just the recovery of the island but the restoration of the island. How to rebuild. We are going to need to use this to leapfrog technology in terms of energy costs. We have the highest energy costs in the state. Cost of living is high. We have major infrastructure needs. We have not had a new school built in 30 years. Both of our hospitals are completely demolished. Now is an opportunity to become. Beacon in the caribbean basin that is his perspective from where he sits. The interior department hasnt ministered the territories that well either. Or else they would not be in the position we ar in now. It is paternalistic at this point. Im hopeful with the new head of affairs, we can have a different relationship. As well as with secretary zinke e. He would see their needs to be in the territory to do this. , the governorthat will get the money he wants, not a goodecause he has been partner of the trump administration. Guest ive never use that terminology for this president. I dont know where he gets that from. I was one of the democrats who went to the inauguration. I have not called for the impeachment of the president. I recognize he is the president. Whether i agree with his policies are not, that is who is our president Going Forward. I know he has an agenda he is trying to push. N election is coming up soon i think that our governor may not have advocated strongly enough for us in this recovery. Ultimately at the end of the day trump is not a person who is going to write the checks. Congress is. They are the ones who are going to be holding the Purse Strings for the United States. That is a group of individuals im speaking with, having conversations with. Stacy,ere joined by from the Virgin Islands to talk about hurricane recovery efforts. Go ahead. I have a question about puerto rico specifically, the lack of Truck Drivers and trucks. They have Truck Drivers off of the island. Are they just dealing with on personal issues so they couldnt get the goods distributed to the outer reaches of the island . Guest part of that is correct. Many of them were dealing with their own families and the destruction they personally felt. Some have not been able to get to places where these docs and containers are. Im sure there are a variety of reasons. The army has massive amount of Truck Drivers. When we have a conversation with fema, they are bringing people as localntifying them the supply outg to the people that need it most. Host ken in new york. Caller i want to wish you the very best in your efforts. I would like to say that this government, the effort that is put forth with the territories, this is a travesty. Aboutrst caller speaking it being black and latino may have a point. We hate to look at things like that but that might be just what it is. It is a shame that we have to deal with this. I wish you the best. Guest thank you for your well wishes. Before the hurricane, when we talked before one of the things i have been concerned about is this is the 100th year the Virgin Islands has been part of the United States. Constitutionf the gives congress the responsibility for the territories. I dont think it was their anyplace would be a territory for over 100 years. Treats congress the territories, they need to be careful ensuring they have what they need to sustain themselves. They do not have the wherewithal some other places have. , isolated, weries have particular challenges other places do not. Congress has done a poor job thus far of administering how the territories are treated. That is the fight that myself, Jennifer Gonzalez from puerto rico, of the republicans from the american some our, members of guam. Host aside from federal aid, is there some way of a social safety net programs for those on the island . Guest sure. We have a discussion. Theres going to be a markup on the chip program. The Child Health Insurance program. The Virgin Islands and puerto rico are about to go off of a cliff in terms of funding we received for that. Im having phone calls this morning trying to get equal treatment of the Virgin Islands and that bill to ensure that is just not another area that our local government is going to have difficulty with. From florida, edith is next. For the speaker, the first thing i wanted to correct, puerto rico was touched by irma, too. Get thatu can straightened out. My second comment was that puerto rico, Virgin Islands and the other territories should really be states. There is no excuse for them holding off for 100 years and not making any of you states. They should have made you states a long time ago. I am wondering, what is going on as far as that . You folks really deserve to be states. Guest we all know that puerto rico has overwhelmingly people wanted to become a state. It is my understanding that congresswoman gonzalez cologne will bring a bill forward requesting a vote on that by members of congress. It is my hope that it passes. So that is just the first step in that. Guest from columbia, south carolina. Republican line. Caller hello. Good morning. Rodriguez, Major Engineering Firm ahead in puerto rico has said he has refused to work with the local government. He calls it inept. He says that even before the hurricane hit, Power Systems were already hit. The debt crisis is a result of government corruption and mismanagement. Somewhere the government is unable to even tax its collect taxes. They dont know, it is just totally this functional. I think 60 of Puerto Ricans are on medicaid or medicare. The Virgin Islands are economically challenged with a per capita debt of 19,000. It seems that both of these islands want to be a part of america as long as the money is flowing and it is a welfare state. I want to ask how you can defend the Economic Conditions in both of these islands. Guest that is a great question. Opinioncipalities in my suffer from areas in which there is mismanagement. Lets look at detroit, new york city in the 70s. Any place you will see that occurring. At the end of the day there is and extreme disproportions inequities and how the federal government gives money to territories. You talk about medicaid and medicare. The poor states, mississippi, which is not as poor as the Virgin Islands, receives for every dollar that goes to medicaid, the federal government gives . 80. Local government pays . 20. In the Virgin Islands and puerto rico we are required to pay . 45 to every dollar for those individuals that need it. That creates a huge burden on the local governments because so many people are poor and unable to receive jobs. We have challenges we are trying to attract businesses. One of our largest employers, an oil refinery, close because they determine refining oil was no longer profitable for them. Our skyrocketed di unemployment to 18 . Those are the challenges. We have energy issues. E are not able to have scale. We have redundant systems on both islands, which raises the cost of electricity. You and the states pay . 14 per kilowatt. Challenges that requires local governments to make costs that other places in United States do not. Is there mismanagement . Is there mismanagement in every other state . Host i would say expect that it is largely an economic driver. Were about to go into our tourist season. It is usually the middle of october into april. If you look on the island, never mind what would have been green and lush. It is brown from the burning of the hurricane. We have lost major resorts in this. Damage on st. Croix to ki. Camille bae is completely gone. Not not only means tourism coming there but those individuals living there not having jobs and wages. How do we attract new industries . We have places that make this an important place to be. We have the largest bandwidth ,apacity with global crossings more than silicon valley, the place with more bandwidth capability is new york city. Because of our data storage, call centers become difficult to have those there. Was thought the last call very paternalistic and ignorant of a colonial power that we did especially our, military. We have used that island down to its nubs. The way to talk about people when they are in a situation, i find so said. The chip program is being cut in the United States and that is devastating. No one is making ap. I would like to ask, since the shooting, will people who have been shot get health care . Nohave 500 people now with they have a preexisting condition for life. Why are we taking care of our people, which includes puerto rico and the islands. Use these places for years and then take things from them. These big hotels are not owned by the people that live there. And people from the outside then a low wages to the people who work there. Shameful. Tally it breaks my heart. Host we will let our guest respond. Guest thank you. One of the examples i gave when you talk about how the territories are treated, when the Virgin Islands were bought by the United States from denmark, it was one of the largest per acre purchases in the history of the United States. 25 Million Dollars in gold bullion on. That went to denmark. That money never went to the people of the Virgin Islands. There was no thought or concern for the people that live there. It was for the purchase of the land as a geographic strategic move in world war i. It took 10 years before the people of the Virgin Islands were given citizenship. About howdiscussion people in the territory should be treated, you look at the insular cases in the Supreme Court at that time when i thought about giving people the right to vote, the Supreme Court justice at that time said these are alien nations, alien raisins races that cannot understand anglosaxon principles of law. Gave then islands United States one of the people who wrote the constitution, alexander hamilton. The constitution,. Lexander hamilton shoul host as a delegate, what is the extent of your voting abilities . Guest we offer bills, make amendments. I do not have a vote on the floor. When delegatese had a vote on the floor and we voted in committees as a whole. When republicans took control of congress, they took that privilege away. Host has anyone called from the maketories that has anyone calls to give Voting Rights to those territories . Guest we have bills that we put forward, protests and discussions on the floor, and even cases making their way up from the course is right now. Host vittoria on the democrats line in monticello. Go ahead. Caller first, i want to thank pedro for your show. I want to tell the delegate that we are praying for her, the Virgin Islands, and the islanders. [inaudible] today, what i would like to do america to get on their phone, email, or twitter, and talk to your representative and senator. Ask them what they are going to do about this situation. It is a shame. We are americans, and we take care of america. You are american, and you have every right that every american has. Programs the chips goes, we are going to have to work that out. We really have to start being more proactive in these situations. If that means you have to spend 10 minutes with your are presented or senator your representative or senator, and we need to do that. Or senator, then we need to do that. Hours onpent so many the Virgin Islands. All of us have come there to enjoy ourselves on the islands. Thank you. When you talk about us being citizens pedro, i can recall being on one of the distribution lines. An elder man approached me, and he said he did not hear us being talked about. He had on his american legion, vetnam that had vietnam hat on. The peoplelly what of the island are asking. That wed be treated with the same respect that we show this country. Some of the descriptions you had on the house floor what has been the reaction to your use of that land which of that language . Guest a lot of members were appreciative of the language. Sometimes, yes to get a little worked up for people to understand that you really mean what you are saying. As i said on the floor, the Virgin Islanders are not going to beg people for support. That is not who we are. When you ask people how they are doing after the hurricane, they will tell you that they are good and thank god for life. When you press them in little more, you find out that they have lost a lot. But they will not tell you that of their own galician. Owns my j of their foolish and. It is been my job to beg congress for their needs on their behalf. Host thank you for joining us. Guest thank you for your time. Have aoming up, we will talk about how the mass shooting in las vegas is playing out in washington. Bresnl be joined by john ahan from politico. That will be coming up next. This weekend on American History tv, saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time on lectures in history, we discussed the evolution we will discuss the evolution of the National Parks system. The point oft setting aside land and then leaving it alone. What he was doing was making nature out of what was at the time old sheets meadows sheeps meadows. Sunday at 6 00 p. M. On american artifacts, a discussion on saving slave houses. Ofnumber one, it is a type preservation. Slave houses are disappearing from the landscape. By documenting them, that is one way to preserve them. Documenting them on the database is another way to share information, and get it out there, and to learn from them should then, at 7 00 p. M. On oral history learn from them. Then, at 7 00 p. M. , oral history. It ended up in the front page of the post, yelling that these freshmen were lined up against the wall with their chins tucked like this. The photograph ran everywhere in the world. That that story earned me my job at the post. American history tv a weekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now is politicos bureau chief at the capital, john. Good morning. What has been the snap reaction . Guest lawmakers in both parties are offering condolences to the victims. They are talking about how evil this whole incident was. There has been talk, especially from the democrats, on some new gun control legislation, but there is very little chance to no chance that that will happen. There is talk about it. There will be a press conference later today. Gabby giffords will be at the capital today talking about this. Democrats are going to be pushing for new legislation. You will see democrats introducing new bills, particularly something that deals with background checks or fires,stocks, slide devices that help make semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons. Therewill be debate, but is very little likelihood anything will happen should host will happen. Host could the democrats reach out to republicans to get some type of support . But, unfortunately, there will continue to be Mass Shootings should there to be Mass Shootings. Are massready shootings happening. There was a bill about background checks offered by two senators, one from West Virginia and another from pennsylvania, which ultimately fell short of getting the votes needed. There is some talk about maybe renewing that bill and pushing it again. He wasator said interested, but the other said there would need to be more republican support. They are in a Republicancontrolled Congress and have a republican resident, so that makes it a very low chance of seeing any guncontrol president , son that makes it a very low chance of seeing any guncontrol. Host there was legislation supposed to be voted on this week on it gun measures. Can you give our viewers in idea of what was on the table when it comes to silencers, suppressors, and concealed carry . Bills there are two being pushed by republicans which would reduce regulations. One of them is the share act which has a provision that alters how gun silencers are sold. They are covered right now under the National Firearms act of 1934 which has a lot tougher licensing requirements on normal gun sales. The proposal would change that so that silencers are regulated the same way as regular firearms. There is another bill from Compass Minerals Richard Hudson of North Carolina congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina which would allow someone, if you have a concealed carry permit, you would be allowed to take your weapon into another state which allows concealed carry. Some states do not allow it, what about 40 states allow ow, but about 40 states do all it. There is unlikely to the any talk or votes on the share act anytime in the near future. Paul ryan said he does not think they will be able to vote on that. I do think the concealed carry act could pass through the house. Fore are 212 cosponsors that act, and you would only need about 218 votes. The were companion pieces to this legislation, both the silencer and concealed carry legislation. It is unlikely they would go anywhere due to the democratic opposition. It seems congress is going in the opposite direction. We are going to loosen up gun restrictions. There is probably a majority for both measures, but it is a little tenuous. Host with this discussion every time we have it, the influence of the nra. How widespread is their influence on capitol hill . Guest they are a very powerful organization. On, monitor what is going and they push legislation. They monitor hearings and what goes on inside the executive branch of congress. Membersendorses especially in primaries. The nra does give money, but the real power is that they can raise awareness on an issue. They reach out to their membership, and they can mobilize their members. And is whether power influence comes from. They have about 5 billion. Embers they have some very motivated members, people who feel very passionately about the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. There is a lot of debate about what the Second Amendment means, but right now the nra and its supporters are active at both a federal and state and local level. They are very well organized and notable about there and knowledgeable about their issues. On the other side, the guncontrol lobby is trying to organize itself. They are not quite there yet but they are trying to host they are trying to beef up. Host we are going to go live now to a press conference on capitol hill. Be bold, be courageous. The nation is counting on you. Thank you very much. Clip, thatat short was from gabby giffords. This coming after she was shot. Guest she and her husband run a guncontrol group. And captainip kellys leadership are important. They are very vocal and highprofile. You definitely see in the past few years that the guncontrol movement is getting are organized at the state, local, and federal level. Michael bloomberg has put a lot of money into this movement. They are definitely much more aggressive in challenging what is happening in congress and the executive branch as well as the state and local levels. The Gun Rights Movement is strong, and the guncontrol movement is strong. This is a political contest being fought at a number of levels and not just at congress. Host our first caller from West Virginia on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. My comment is that democrats garnered a lot of hate when they called republicans racists, and that disturbs people and causes them to go off the wall. I think they are just as much responsible. Guncontrol is not going to stop anything. If they want a gun, then they are going to get it. Www. Cspan. Org host that is a common refrain from people who call in. Guest there are about 3 billion guns in this country. Used by thergument Gun Rights Movement for a long time saying that criminals will get a gun if they want one, so there is no reason to restrict a citizens Second Amendment rights to purchase and carry a weapon. We could spend days talking about that argument, but it is a powerful argument rhetorically. Concern aroundof the las Vegas Tragedy where the gunman had about 50 weapons which he obtained as far as we can tell legally. So, why does one person need 50 guns . Bumpan one person by a stock which would allow a semiotic weapon a semiautomatic weapon to become an automatic weapon . Tripod, skills, he had the level of equipment we would see from an Armed Service member. So why would he need all that . This debate is not going anywhere. I do think there is a socioeconomic element to the argument. There is a race argument to it. It is a very complicated issue. Californiae county, on the independent line, alan. Good morning. Caller thank you for accepting my call. All of these issues are being discussed to death. The only way to get their point across is that they are able to organize people. If the people want to change, then they have to go out and vote. The politicians look at the money and the vote. If they have the vote, then they follow the money. People want to get rid of automatic weapons, then they have to go out and vote. I think the caller makes a good point. Lawmakers from both parties are going to Pay Attention to which is in theovement league. I think we are going to see the incontrol movement play out virginia. Some adss postponing that they were going to run. They say it was not related to the las vegas incident, but it was their normal process. They are postponing the ads anyway, but it was a timing everyone noted. Former Bush Administration staffer using this argument that the democrats want to restrict gun rights, and this is an issue in virginia. Ofginians have a lot discussion and debate over gun rights issues. You have some very strong lobbies like the nra who are very powerful. You have some loose laws in virginia when it comes to gun restrictions. There are open carry laws. We could see this play out in the charlottesville incident. There were people on both sides of that episode, including the White Supremacists and militia people who were heavily armed. Shocking for some think aboute, but the state of nevada. Open carry law with few restrictions on gun sales. In the south and west, the state legislation makes laws on that which would not play out in other parts of the country. I think this is a very passionate debate on both sides of the issue. Host lets hear from jimmy next in pensacola, florida. Caller good morning. I think guncontrol is not going to be a solution to this problem. I think in a soft target situation like this, maybe the answer would be to have a highly skilled sniper on duty in case Something Like this were to happen. He could take out the perpetrator very quickly. What i really feel like the problem here is the divisiveness in this country. I think the president needs to talk more softly about getting together rather than talking about how these people are bad and those people are bad. It is going on a lot in the news. Democrats versus republicans, and that is just really, really bad. I think that would be more of a solution along with Mental Health issues. Calleri think that raises a good point that clearly the partisan divide in this country is are a sharp. President trump has made it clear that he supports the Second Amendment and gun rights. He raised that issue repeatedly during the campaign. Hillary clinton supported more restrictions and more extensive ground checks, and she came out again after the loss that is shooting to call for a renewal of the debate. I think it is very unlikely that we would see President Trump sign any legislation even if it got through congress. Feinsteintor dianne sending out a tweet on automatic weapons. She said that civilians are able to buy those bump stocks which automatic weapons to fire up to a hundred rounds per minute. What do you think of this . Guest her own career has been rights and gun control. She has fought for stricter gun control her whole career. This is consistent with what she has proposed throughout a long public career. I think that this latest incident has raised new concern about this issue of bump stocks or slide fires which are aftermarket devices that you can attach to your gun to mimic an automatic weapon. On itwatching some videos last night, and they were able to go through rounds as fast as an automatic weapon. The atf has allowed these to be sold. Administratively, they could songe their policy on that, there may not necessarily need to be legislation on that. I think you will see congress pushed the white house on that. I think you may even see some republicans push on that. Again, these are perfectly legal devices, but i do not think there was a lot of Public Knowledge about them until this incident. Host david in maryland on the independent line. Caller my question runs around the fact that this particular issue we are told that the individual got many of these guns legally. My concern eventually is that we will find out those guns were acquired in a very short period of time. With all the money and technology we have in this country, you need to tell me that we do not have the ability, at the time they purchase the gun, that it is dialed in and reported with their Social Security number, their name, the location into a computer database to determine if they have purchased many guns in a recent time period. With computeris checks, and it will be overseen by a group of people. I do not understand why we continue to let these types of purchases be made. We are just not creating a system to do it. I think it is the incompetence of both the legislators and the president. Guest the caller raises some points. There are some background checks when you buy from a federally firearm licensing. Far,thing i have seen so the gunman purchased his weapons legally. There is no national database, a federal database on gun sales. In fact, congress has prevented that from happening. There is no place for the fbi to tap in and look at who owns a gun. That has been something that congress has said they cannot do. That was an issue with the nra. They have been very adamant about their thinking that if guns,is a database on then that is the first step on the government taking your guns. They feel very passionately about that. At the state level, you can check, but it is up to the individual states. There are no limits on how many guns you can purchase in some states. In nevada, there are no limits to the number of guns mr. Paddock could have bought any time as long as he passed a background check. Host as far as this gun show option, what are the requirements put on sellers at gun shows . What do they have to check . Guest it depends on if the seller is a federal licensor or not. If they are a licensed gun dealer, then there would have to be a background check. If it is a private transaction and they do not have a federal firearms license, then there does not have to be a background check it background check. Host from hyde park, North Carolina. Go ahead. Caller i want to know if he is familiar with an article in the Washington Post from april 30. Religionled runs and conservativesn are similar to putins russia. , andhave shooting clubs many members of the an array overra movement have been and visiting. They are trying to increase i those wild has animals and stuff, but they are trying to get a Movement Like the Second Amendment here. Guest i am not familiar with that article, i am sorry, but there has been an effort to loosen restrictions on the sale of small arms. A lot of them are manufactured in the United States, and that is something that the Gun Rights Movement has pushed for. Pushing for exports of small arms which is something being talked about. Host you spoke about the widespread influence of the nra but what about gun manufacturers themselves . Guest i think that is more local where they have operations. I think they have some influence their wherever they have influence there, wherever they have their manufacturing operations. The legislation that includes the provision on silencers and gunressors, the big manufacturers have purchased ompanies which c are much smaller companies, and now they are pushing this legislation to improve sales. Since President Trump was elected, gun sales have gone down. Up under were president obama, because there was a lot of concern from the nra and gun rights supporters that he was going to take your gun. With trump, there is no sense that he would do Something Like that, so gun rights sales have slowed. With the guncontrol movement is saying is that you have gun manufacturers pushing this silencer legislation in order to help their own bottom line. Texas,rom san antonio, mark is next. Caller i have a comment. I was watching the news, and they were showing the shooting. But we never heard was returned fire. If anyone in the crowd was armed, i do not think he would have gotten nearly as far as he did with his rampage. Guest i do not know about the details on that. There were over 20,000 people at the event. Again, an open carry state with loose gun laws. I believe there were probably people armed in that crowd. Host was it a gun free zone . Guest in the casino themselves, they are gun free. You are allowed to have open carry in nevada, the casinos are gun free areas. But the casinos are gun free areas. I do not know if this particular concert area was then free or not. Host next caller on the republican line. Caller this was a tragedy, first of all. Everybody is all about gun control again. Lets look at chicago, one of the toughest gun laws on the books is in the city of chicago, and how many deaths have they had so far this year . Is, if you want guncontrol, lets go back and have people control. We have too many people who figure they are owed something and that they can do whatever they want with no consequences for their actions. It is always somebody elses fault. My question to this gentleman is guncontrol, we have more people dying on our roads every year through accidents. Host ok, caller. Guest these are two arguments that we have heard for decades. Criminals get guns, and they are going to use them. Even when they are in areas with stricter gun control, there are lots of shootings. I think of course, more people dying in car accidents, but, again, a car is not designed as a weapon. , but are tragedies in cars i think what the guncontrol movement would say about this argument is that the reason we have guns going into cities or musicalitys or municipalities where there are isonger guncontrol regimes that people go out and purchase them in different states. The guns are flowing in from states with looser regulations and that is why the guns are going into chicago and other areas where there are a number of shootings. There is no national standard. We allow the states themselves to regulate them. Host you have likely seen the comments on twitter. Guest that is an argument also. Countries like japan have incidents of gunfire violence at a much lower rate. In england, much lower than United States. There is an argument about personal freedom and the right to defend your self. Is ancond amendment important part of the American History, and people feel passionately that it should be defended. Government agencies should not be the only people with guns. If you want to defend your self, your home, your property, your family, then you should have the right to do that. Host one more caller. Nancy on the democrats line. Go ahead. Caller i have a practical solution which i think could be done. Not in tracking people or background checks on people, met, up with a law but co up with a law that requires gun many factories implant guns with a chip that could not be taken out. Institutions like hotels, churches, whenever people want to know if there is a gun on the premise, some kind of red light alert system would go on, and then they would know or the gun is. As far as i know, guns themselves do not have rights. Guest well, there has been a lot of discussion about smart gun technology. Some Way Technology could be used to prevent nonowners of guns being able to use them. Would be seta gun up so that only the registered owner of that gun could use it. There is a lot of discussion and technology moves at one speed while politics moves at another. Talkinghn from politico with us about the current debate on capitol hill about gun control. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you for having me. On theou can comment programs we have had on today. We will have open phone lines. Democrats on 2027488000. Republicans on 2027488001. Independents on 2027488002. We will be right back. Clear that my impression of breitbart was that it was having influence on the 316 election was an understatement in the on the 2016 election was an understatement in the extreme. In fact, breitbart was the driving force on the right side of the political spectrum. Sunday night q a, who killed and will discuss his story, hole. The breitbart i think this i think this speaks to the disparity people have about breitbart. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time on cspan q a. Cspan, where history unfold daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by American Cable Television companies, and it is provided to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host several items in the papers this morning when it comes to facebook and their digital ads. This is from the washington journal, extreme we spoke ads book extreme his persisting. Book ads according to versions of the page, a person with knowledge of the Facebook Page confirmed its authenticity as well as three others. There was another page which bought ads during the campaign that posted videos that allegedly showed Police Violence against blacks. Post came in august when the whites of premises rallied the plate there was a, which took place during there was a post which came as the events in charlottesville took place. It included a civil rights photo of john lewis in a defiant stance. Ads in theull page newspapers this morning from facebook itself. It says that they take the trust of the facebook immunity seriously. Community seriously. We will take the issue of influence during a Political Campaign very seriously. We are adding more than 1000 people to our global ad review team. We will expand our policies around violence in ads. They are also sharing ads may have found with Congress Good they have found several thousand with congress. A have found several thousand ads which came from russia during the 2016 election. Open phones, lets go to catherine on the independent line from florida. Caller good morning. I wanted to comment on the ,isasters on the Virgin Islands and why there are problems getting resources to the people. Number one, the logistics and topography pose huge problems should i have been a disaster huge problems. I have been a disaster volunteer for several years. I have been to haiti during the earthquakes and help with mudslides, etc. Islands poset the is huge infrastructure problems. The islands get hit over and over again. They never get properly rebuilt. Although these areas, like instance, ther lines are down. Ground,e people on the but they do not have the resources and the government has been destroyed. The municipalities are not getting the supplies distributed as they should be. The Virgin Islands even have a lower population. I cannot answer why the Mainstream Media does not really address these matters. I have been to the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and i would go multiple times without recognition for it. What i think the issues are which present with the topography and logistics. Host understood. Lets go to robert in georgia on the republican line. , i am just wondering why they do not pay Social Security to get anything . To get disability, medicare, medicaid. [inaudible] they pay no federal taxes or none of that. I would like for jordan not have to pay for georgia to not have to pay any of that either. Taxes. Hey do pay they pay their personal income taxes which we found out yesterday in interview which you can see over on www. Cspan. Org. Our next caller. Go ahead. Caller concerning the flag, honoring the flag i just want to lay something out for you. , and i take care of them. Life. Care of them all my , should theyfamily honor me . Do not cut me off. Should they honor me . Flag whenng the [inaudible] these people want to honor the stand forlet the flag what it stands for. It is freedom and justice for all. You give me justice, i will be glad to honor the flag. If you think im supposed to well, they can hang me or the police can tell e can kill m host we got you, jesse. Next on the independent line. Caller good morning, pedro. I want to thank you for taking my call. If you will allow me, i would like to make two points on gun control. On tuesdays, i get together with my retired friends, and the subject of the massacre came up. My friends are gun owners. One of them said he was shocked, and i said i was not surprised. This is going to keep happening. If itd not be surprised does the time after that and the time after that. A movie over the weekend which i thought was very interesting. He had a box with a button and it. There was a suitcase with the Million Dollars on the side of it. If you press the button, you can have a Million Dollars but someone is going to die. You will not know who it is, and you will not be charged for any crime. N,ll, the lady hit the butto because she wanted a Million Dollars and the story develops from there. Rather than a Million Dollars in the suitcase, we look at guns and we say we would rather has our guns and we do not care about the collateral damage. That is the sad commentary about our modern society. Thank you for your time. Have a great day. Host a couple of days ago, the president sent out some tweets about the efforts in north korea. He said i told Rex Tillerson he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with little ket little rocket man. Save your energy, rex. Here is what general mattis had to say about those tweets. I think President Trump dispatching secretary tillerson to beijing to deal with china on this issue shows a level of attention and his intent to work with other nations diplomatically by dispatching our top diplomat to beijing to do that very thing. I believe that secretary tillersons remarks about probing north korea to see if they are ready to talk was what the president was referring to and not the diplomatic effort at large. Save the tweet that says your energy, rex, we will do what has to be done. Is that something you agree with . Again, i believe the president characterized it as secretary tillerson was looking to talk right now, but he is not. He is probing to see if they are ready to talk constructively, and i believe that nuance was. Ost, center lost, senator. Host you can find that video online on our archive at www. Cspan. Org. All of that is available to you, again, at www. Cspan. Org. Montgomery, pennsylvania on the republican line, here is harold. Caller hello. I would like to make a comment. Society has brought a lot of this violence on themselves. You will not hear this from anybody else, but there have to be some people who are willing to stand up. Thean have a doctor go into womb of a mother and suck the brains of a child which is murder if we can allow that, then we are destroying the sanctity of life. When you are destroying the sanctity of life, you are Opening Society of to all of these evils. It is not a gun problem, it is a societal problem. Next is doug in oklahoma. Yes, the caller mentioning chicago and all the gun problems there and then being a straight gun state. Strictey being a guncontrol state. What they do is they go down to their neighbor state, and that is where they get most of their weapons from. Day, when the andident was in puerto rico made those statements during a back, inerence, i went my mind, to the conference he , the natol months ago well, anyway, he spoke he pushed his way up to the front. He is very arrogant is what im kind to say. Just reminded me of that what i am trying to say. It just reminded me of that. Host our next caller. Caller i wonder if you have a weather guy you could bring on show as a way on the speaking about a way to prevent hurricanes. They have them on the radar. The hurricane cannot be a hurricane without the eye. Bombhave such a powerful that if you flew into the eye with one or two of them, i think they cost about 100 million, off,if you set two of them i think you would collapse the eye and get rid of the hurricane. It would only be 200 million while hurricanes cost tens of billions of dollars. About 10 or 15 miles. If you can get someone who knows about whether and bring it up to from it is just a thought somebody who does not know what they are talking about. You may not know though, it could work. Host that was mighty in connecticut. Mike in connecticut. Starting as soon as next month, American Tobacco will start running court mandated ads as part of a lawsuit brought against the industry for misleading statements about cigarettes and their health effects. The ads will run in prime time cbs,ppear mostly on abc, and nbc. They said that these as will be reminiscent of a disclosure statement put at the end of a pharmaceutical ad with text forced by the courts to appear on the screen with a voiceover narrative. Rob is in ohio on the democrats line. I wanted to get back to the respect for the American Flag issue. Personally, for me, i find the most disrespectful thing you can do to the American Flag is to naziaybe an isis flag, a flag, or maybe a confederate flad. Lag. Onfederate f flags, thosethose are nations which rose up against america, and they are disrespectful to the American Flag. When the president spoke about only weak soldiers getting ptsd, we want to talk about showing respect for the flag and let do that. When you talk about the nfl, that is a personal grudge President Trump has had 30 years. It has to do with the fact that he lost a huge court case to the and and he was in paris humility was embarrassed and humiliated and now he is angry. Host ashley from georgia on the republican line. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me. Two quick points regarding guncontrol. There was a caller earlier mentioning having a system with a database which could pinpoint where an individual purchases a gun. Something thes government should look into. Trulyk, if the nra is economic patriotic, then they should share in the process of how we can have better guncontrol laws. Everybody should have the right to bear arms, but, with that laws. There have to be there are laws that say, if you get caught drinking and driving, you lose your license, you get put in jail, you have to pay heavy fines. It should be the same with owning a gun. There is no reason for you to own certain types of guns. You can buyy that this particular type of gun, but you cannot own more than one of there are ways we could compromise as a country and find that middle ground. I think, if the nra are truly patriots, then they have a strong responsibility to step up and say, these are the solutions we are bringing to the table for this discussion. Host ashley from atlanta, georgia. There are debates currently efforts about display including one about a native american about a naked woman. The artist said he saw it as an opportunity to spark a conversation about violence against women. It pictures a shorthaired, nude woman. Times saying that the National Park service is reviewing a groups proposal to bring it to washington. It would be posed to face the white house. Scheduled to feature the display is on veterans day weekend. It would raise awareness about the equal rights amendment. The First Anniversary of the womens march is on generate 21, 2018 is on january 2018. Next caller on the line. Caller getting back to the discussion on guncontrol, one of the reasons why the Second Amendment was written was so that we could bear arms in case the government got out of hand. We could rise up against the government. That we could have an equal amount of guns to rise up against the government. I just wanted to bring that point. Host david on the independent line from maryland. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like everyone to remember the horrible sounds , andthe videos in vegas then i want you to imagine every one of those ar15s, not only it, butump stock on with a legally purchased florida silencer. Imagine silencers on every single weapon you use. I called florida silencer yesterday. It,police would still hear but think about the music, the people in front of all the speakers, and how long it took them to realize what was going on without the silencers. Youtube, go on adapter an oil filter that you can screw on to the end of your gun, and you cannot hear a thing. Thank you for taking my call. Host harold next in alabama on the democrat line. Caller i am calling in on the guncontrol issue. In 2012 thank you for taking my call. 2012 host keep going. We going to lose you in about a minute. Caller a man wanted to background check me, and he said all you needed was some money. He said if you do not have the money, then you can leave. They do not ask me for a background check should background check. They do not ask for an id or anything. That is not right. Host was this a personal gun sale or at a shop . Showr this was at a gun at the fairgrounds in alabama. Purchase a gun, and i asked if there was going to be a background check. He said no, if you have the money. Host that was harold in alabama giving us his experiences as far as something thats as far as gun purchases. The guncontrol experiences as far as gun purchases. The guncontrol debate is again alive on capitol hill. Right now, we take you to the house of representatives. The house will be in order. We have communication from the speaker. Woodall to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, paul d. Ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2017, the chair wi ll now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate